I have been spending a considerable amount of time in Japan lately. Before my first visit to Japan in October, I didn't even know I wanted to go there. I discovered my desire for Japan only upon my arrival. I was suddenly struck with an overwhelming feeling, like I had stepped into a country filled with perfect people who were all created by a Moon Goddess and lived in Moon Land of Perfection.
Perfection is just everywhere, in Japan: in their geography, their culture, their society, their people, their infrastructure... and when I say "perfect" I don't mean the nonexistence of flaws. But when I say "perfect", I mean the harmony of everything. The absence of harmony and flow is imperfection. Japan doesn't have that. Japan is perfect.
Of all the things about Japan that I could sit down and write about today, I am choosing to write about something that really strikes me hard. And that is on the matter of religion.

A little Shinto Shrine outside a small establishment in Kyoto.

At first, you visit Japan and you feel like their temples and shrines are there for novelty, there as tourist attractions. But you stay longer and you begin to realize that their temples and shrines are not for you; rather, they are there for the worshipful people of Japan.
Their ornate shrines and breathtaking temples of worship are very personal entities that exist because this is in fact the religion of the people. You go there with your camera and your selfie stick and you realize that little old ladies and little boys and girls and salary men and businesswomen and anime cosplay teenagers are all paying visits to these temples and shrines because they believe in the entities that are enshrined there. They want to go there to pray. That's where they pray every day, or every week, or every semester before exams...
The local Japanese populace visits their temples and shrines in order to pray, to worship, to praise. I would watch them arrive at the temples and shrines while I was in Japan: their fervent hand gestures, their solemn faces, their respectful countenance, their eager hearts!

A man leaving his prayer/s at a Shinto shrine.

These beautiful people who are so respectful and desirous of beautifying their society, the lives of other people, and their country as a whole, bow down to pray to stone images of mice and cats and rabbits and bears! Small beings that we consider to be insignificant in nature. I am not used to this. I am used to bowing down before Gods who are "almighty, omnipotent, all-powerful, and 'the One True God." In fact, I used to always believe that being God was about "being the best at everything." And then I became used to growing up in a culture wherein "being the best at everything" was how you attained your own status as a "god". Just look at all those CEOs!
Religion is an incredibly undeniable element of human society and the human psyche. Just think: The only real constant element of humanity, through the ages, is the concept of God: of having a God (or Gods), of worshiping, of praying... people have always prayed. People have always looked upwards and asked for help, for favor, for guidance. No matter the tribe, the nation, the color of skin.
But I believe that we only become as good as the Gods that we believe in. Or nearly as good. Or perhaps we only become as good, or nearly as good, as the type of system of belief that we put our trust in.
The three Abrahamic religions of today, which are the most widespread of religions on our planet, each proclaim utter ownership of the word "True God." These Gods are jealous, vengeful, wrathful, and they expect you to come up to par to the rules they have set. And then they don't stop there; because they further expect you to require the same of the people around you. In other words, they tell you, "This is what the One True God is like and other people should know this and believe this and you shouldn't be friends with anyone who doesn't do what I say they should do." And that is basically it.
When we put our trust in Gods who are "the best", it goes to follow that we will pattern our own minds along this pathway and think that our own religion is the best, or the only one true way. We're not going to be considerate of what other people believe, or what they hope for, because we won't even want to be their friends.

Me, sitting at a Shinto shrine on Mt. Fuji.

This world is vast. Just vast, really. On the one hand, we have human beings murdering one another in the name of "The One True God", and on the other hand, we have human beings wanting the best for each other and their society, because they pray to mice and foxes.
Why do we judge people's goodness entirely dependent upon which God they are worshiping? Are we in a contest to compare who has the better God? If a person who worships a rabbit is good to you, truly good to you, would that be of less impact on you than the cruelty of a man who worships one of the main centerfold Gods of this world? Would you not care to weigh the goodness of the rabbit-worshiper, because his God is merely a rabbit? Would you be quick to forgive the cruelties of a Jewish man or a Christian man or a Muslim man, because his God is a major player in the arena of religion? How are we calculating the value of goodness, in our world today?
I have a thought that runs through my mind: What if all of the Gods are friends, in reality? With our human minds, we have pitted the Gods against one another, as we pit ourselves against one another (we have made our own Gods in our own image). But what is the likelihood that all of the Gods that do exist, are against one another's systems and are in a contest to show who is more powerful? Really? Is it really all that childish and cumbersome? Really now?
What if all the Gods that do exist, are actually existing in harmony and unity? What if Jesus and Allah and Jehovah and Rabbit and Mouse and the Tao and the Universe are all hanging out together right now, and the only thing that they want-- the only thing that they really, really want-- is to see whom amongst the human race has a good heart?

Makeshift Shinto shrine on Mt. Fuji.

What if Jesus is saying, "Let's say I am the Only Way"; and then Allah says, "And I'll say I am the Only One"; and then Jehovah says, "And I'll say my people are the Chosen Ones"; and then Mouse says, "Then I'll just be a mouse on a hill with a stone figure"; and then they all say, "And we'll see who worships Mouse in all of his smallness and insignificance. Let's see who prays to Mouse for help, even if he's just a Mouse." And then what if they are all just there, hanging out together, waiting to see the quality of the hearts of man... waiting to see who is too proud and who is truly humble?
Who wants to identify himself with the most powerful God? Of course everyone. Who wants to identify himself with a rabbit or a mouse? Hard to find that one. The latter is smaller, is humbler, is quieter, is simpler. Much, much simpler. Something a small child might pray to.
What if Eternal Pradise is a lot more important and a lot more significant and a lot more complicated than just believing and putting all of your trust in the one God who says He's the Only Way or the Only One or that He has made you the Chosen One? What if arriving into the Heavenly Paradise one day is actually about being a simple-hearted person? A humble person. A person who is okay with praying to a little mouse? Because what if that's the kind of person who possesses the heart of gold? The person with a heart of a child!

Geisha praying at one of the shrines at Kiyomizu-dera, in Kyoto.

No man or woman should be afraid to think, to explore, to ask. The moment that these three things cause fear in the heart of a person, that is the moment a person should realize that he/she is being kept away from all of the other forms of truth that are out there. There are many truths in the world, and you will never find any of them if you think that you already have the only one that exists!
I am extremely humbled to have witnessed a culture of people who are innately altruistic, fervently respectful and considerate, who force no one else to follow in their own religions. Have you ever heard of a Shinto forcing you to go to Shinto Shrine? Nope. Have you ever heard of a Buddhist forcing you to go to rub Buddha's belly? I don't think so. Like I said, we are only as good as the Gods we believe in. Or, as the systems set in place by man for us to understand them. I mean, what if Jesus and Allah and Jehovah are actually really chill Gods who really just want the best for everyone and everything, but then some people who needed to make money wrote some laws and said, "This is what the Big God says!" and vóila! The rest is history!
The most humbling act to witness, in a lifetime, is a person praying to the statue of a mouse. A little old lady or a little kid, drinking from a stream of water they believe was sent by Heaven to help them, or bathing in incense they believe was sent by Heaven to bring them mercy. It's not insignificant; it might be small, it might be little, but it's Earth-moving. It's beautiful.

Kyomizu-dera "Pure Water Temple"; the place of magical streams.

I hope that one day you will be able to visit Japan, to watch and to think deeply about what you see there. I hope that one day you will be shaken to your core and that you will never be the same person again. I hope that one day you will ask questions, seek answers, and that you will no longer be afraid. Let's all hope this, together.

If you want to follow my Japan travels, head on over to my Instagram account for an immersive experience.

I remember watching one of the (close to ending) scenes of one of the movies in the movie series The Matrix, which was when the masses of human beings turned to dancing as a last resort against the computer simulations (the "Mr. Smiths"). The antagonists were closing in on the remaining humans that defied the matrix and the only thing left to do was the most primal human action they could do in that instant: DANCE. Do you remember this scene from the movie? If not, here's a refresher for you:

That was a long time ago and I was a lot younger when I first watched it, but I had goosebumps all over my body and I still have goosebumps today when I watch it again. I sat there in front of the t.v., many years ago, and I thought about it hard. I pondered upon the nature of dance and what it means to be human and how that primal act of pleasure was a final stand against the matrix and the whole lie and the control of the computer simulation that had power over the greater bunch of humanity.
I think that, aside from sexual intercourse, dancing is the most pleasurable action a human can indulge in. For me, at least, I know that is how I feel. I am pretty sure it releases a ton of dopamine in my brain, because dancing, to me, is close to orgasmic and I'm sure there are a handful of others (if not more than just a handful) who feel the same way.
I recently began living a night life. I got married very young and raised my son all throughout my 20s. When other people were going to clubs, I was being a mother and a wife. Now though, that my son is taller than me and has a sturdy foundation for his own life, I feel that it is time for me to live in any which way that I choose to live. And so, I turn to dancing. Most preferably done in the company of a whole den of other people, at nighttime. But I have discovered so much more since I started living at night. I have discovered that the night club is the place where you will find the most open, transparent and accepting people. For some reason, dancing+alcohol consumption, seems to result in affectionate, accepting and uninhibited human beings. The club is the only place where people just walk right up to me and ask me if I am happy, tell me that I am beautiful, and touch my hair even if they don't know me. And I am not even talking about men specifically. Women do this to other women (something that never happens anywhere else, because, every woman gotta be a cold bitch at school, in the office, at the mall, walking down the street).
I myself, have a lot to learn from the night clubs and the bars. I need to learn how to let down the many walls I have built around myself and to let the cracks shine through. I have to learn how to talk to people (in person) with a deep type of openness and neediness and acceptance (yes, both neediness and acceptance at the same time). I am getting there, slowly but surely!
This is a side to the human nature that I really have not been able to witness any other time in my life, thus far. And I love it. People are people and in the club they leave their cares, worries, pretensions and hostilities at the door. Yes, plenty of broken and sad people can be found in the club, too. But that does not mean that in the morning or in the afternoons they are not broken and deformed on the inside; rather, it just means that at night, in the club, they stop hiding it!

I don't look for happiness at the night club, but I do thrive on the freedom and the openness in there and it feels like Vitamin C, really it does! It also makes me see how entirely wrong it is to judge people who go out at night. I grew up in an extremely conservative community and I am pretty sure that, right now, the greater majority of my friends think that I am on my way to hell because I have developed a penchant for dancing and having a few cocktails. Bless their hearts. Many people live in bondage within their minds. Bondage propagated by ideals set by religious beliefs, familial expectations, so on and so forth. But some people, like me, break free!
There is also the angle of people being of the persuasion that having a vibrant night life is not a spiritual activity to engage in. This is due to the fact that their forms of spirituality reside on the outside of them, rather than on the inside of them. If they go over there, they are no longer connected to their spirituality; if they come over here, they are no longer spiritual beings... their spirituality exists in an outward form rather than within their soul form. They must physically attach themselves to what they wish their souls to be shaped like (or to what they have been convinced will cause their soul to become the shape they so desire for it).
If you must identify yourself with a certain time of day, or a certain type of activity, in order to consider yourself as spiritual (ascended, enlightened, awakened, higher being, transformed being), then it is, in actuality, the time of day that is spiritual and the type of activity that is spiritual but notyou yourself who is spiritual! If you are a spiritual being, or of the supernatural persuasion, then whatever time of day it is or wherever you go and whatever you do-- you will always be the light and the salt, wherever you are placed. You will always be connected, ascended, awakened, enlightened. Because it is YOU; it is not the place or the time or the action! When you are spiritual, you make things around you spiritual; if you are supernatural, you look at a small flower and you see the eyes of God in it. If you are a flame, how could you ever be anything other than a flame?
I don't think I will ever stop reveling in the openness and the brokenness and the affections that the night is impregnated with. Like stars in the sky, we see people's light at night, breaking through the cracks that they keep so sealed and closed in the daytime.

The story of my birth into this world is a rather unique one. During labour, the doctors thought they'd lost me. I had lost my heartbeat. They extracted fluid from my skull to check for oxygen presence in my brain to determine if I could still be born alive (I still have the scar on the side of my head until now). They did find oxygen, so the doctors were able to save my life.
I sometimes wonder, if the reason why I am able to live supernaturally, is due to the fact that before I was born I already experienced death? A crossover to death that happens in the middle of a crossover to birth, is a very curious thing, indeed!
I don't share this story often, because I feel like it makes me look fragile. But this year on my birthday, I realised that it tells a beautiful story of a love for life and it also teaches a lesson. The lesson is a unique one: that we are not to give up, even after our hearts have stopped beating. Usually, we all say, "as long as there is breath there is a way"; or, "as long as there is a heartbeat, there is hope." But my story teaches that even after the heart has stopped beating, there is still hope. And even before a breath has been breathed, there is a way! 💘

I love you all, thank you for reading the things that I write, thank you for welcoming me into your lives in such a profound and moving way. I am honoured to have met you through my words. God has blessed me with the ability to become a part of many lives and for that I feel very thankful. 🙏

In our world, compassion has become a word synonymous with poverty. Compassion is reserved for the poor. Disdain is reserved for the rich. Mercy is reserved for the poor. Judgment is designated to the rich. Because people only recognise outward brokenness: broken clothes, broken shoes, broken houses, broken cars... people do not recognise inward brokenness: broken souls, broken hearts, broken minds, broken families.
Broken rich people try to fix their brokenness with no help from anything but money. And money doesn't help the soul. The problem is that people actually do believe that money is everything, that's why they think that when you do have money, you have everything, and don't deserve anything else (like compassion, understanding, love, mercy). It is in fact ironic, that the real reason why people hate rich people, is because they themselves feel like rich people can fix everything in the world because they own everything in the world. As if all the money in the world could fix a single broken soul! And it's the rich people who actually know that, because it's they who actually live it.

In this world, we have the broken on the outside and the broken on the inside: money can fix the outside but cannot fix the inside. One has the cure to the other. But rather than working together, society has instead chosen to point fingers and in doing so, continues the cycle of judgment and pain, for everybody. Society has instead chosen an underdog it deems worse off, and it has chosen the outward brokenness as the worse of the two. Why? Because society is shallow and cannot comprehend inner pain.
We have swanky bars and clubs filled with rich people drowning their sorrows while the rest of the world points fingers and says that everyone in there ought to fix all the problems of the world! Because for some reason, the hellbound are expected to save the heavenbound. And what kind of logic is that? You've got it all wrong, world. You've got it all wrong.

The problem with people and love, today, is the fact that people do not know what love is. People could sit down with love, talk to love, walk with love and be touched by love... without ever knowing that it was love! And then... continue to look for her, even after they have already found her. Why? Well, this is a very curious thing in life: that people have given meaning to something that they think they have understood, without first understanding it. Usually, we eat an egg before we remember that it is an egg and to call it an egg. But with love, you see, we remember what we think it is and what we think we should call it, before we have eaten it!
The mundane people go around believing that love is something they are going to find in someone that makes them feel a certain way about themselves, because that someone is everything that they think love means and love looks like. So they do not actually fall in love with who that person is. They don't even know that person, really. People don't even fall in love with people, anymore. People fall in love with ideas. With easy things. With things that feel good. With things that should mean what love is supposed to mean.
The truth is, love almost always looks like what we didn't think it would look like and what we didn't plan for it to look like. What we didn't hope it would be like and even maybe everything we are afraid of ever feeling!

When you fall in love with a person-- nothing can take that love away. Not another person, not a circumstance, not an event... not time, not space. And you want everything about the person-- the difficult, the heavy, the light, the fun, the ugly, the dirty, the brilliant, the holy, the sacred, the pure, the innocent, the dark, the scary, the late nights, the tears, the early mornings, the laughter. That's what happens when you fall in love with a person. It's irreplaceable. Irreplaceable. It's not a feeling, it's not an idea. It's a person.

We can discover God in many things. God, I believe, is not a relic of a temple or a building or an image or a book. God is experienced in moments. In flowers, in birds, in the sunrise... in our own bodies and how our bodies feel and heal and grow. God in every blade of grass and in every heartbeat and bone. And in every feather. This is the experience of God.
We normally tend to segregate the experience of God to objects, events and moments that are not partial to our human experience, thus alienating God to certain aspects of life (like our desire to be better people or to be kind, or our church attendance or our reading of a holy book, etc. etc.) And then "outside" of God, we normally continue to experience life apart from Him.

Who is God then, what is God's name, which holy book does God really belong to, which creed, which people, which set of rules... what is His name? I always ask myself these questions, and I say, "God, what is your name and who do you belong to?" But I always feel the same answer in my Mind and Soul: God is Greater and Bigger than all of these questions and all of the answers that people would like to give to them. Because all of the books and all of the paths and all of the names are objects and concepts that are the byproducts of humankind's desire to experience God. Since the very beginning of time itself, as history and archaeology proves, humankind has been desirous of experiencing God and many channels have been forged to facilitate this. Every culture has its own Book, every people has its own Name.
We fight and we toil in order to make other people walk our own Path, read our own Books and call out the Name that we know. This is a very menial activity and a very small endeavor. God is far greater and far bigger than all of this.
And so, what is God's name? God's name is the name that matters to you, it is the name that causes you to experience Him in everything. Whichever name facilitates God for you in your moments, is the name of God. On the contrary, we have not realised that God is an experience; we have not been experiencing God, we have instead been equating God. Equating God to a tradition, to a church, to a book, to a name, to an image that is always outside of us, one which we struggle to walk hand-in-hand with.
Atheists are not people who do not believe in God (and this is something that atheists themselves do not even realise yet); rather, atheists are people who do not believe in the things that people say God is. I have said this quite a few times before: that atheists are people who have a very real chance of experiencing God, because they despise all of the methodologies, anecdotes and dogmas that other human beings have associated with Him. Atheists are in possession of minds that are actually more ripened for the God experience, than any religious person. But they don't realise this. All that they are aware of, is their disdain for the byproducts of people's desires to seek God.
It is okay to subscribe to a premade God-seeking method laid out by your ancestors, it is okay to live by it and to go to church by it, etc. But it is also okay to step out of these paths and into the area of the God experience. Into the area of experiencing God and not only equating God.
God is not far-removed from our flesh and from what makes us human, God does not call us to chastise human nature or to chastise our own desires and being. God calls for us to experience Him in all that we are; to see His face in the reflection of our souls, to see His face in the blades of grass, in the wings of birds. And the only name of God that matters, is the Name that comes to mind when you experience Him in your moments. And the only story of God that matters, is the story that He creates with you in your moments.
May we all stop equating God, may we all start experiencing Him.

Hello, wonderfuls! What a joyful day it is today! Yesterday, the Moon and the Sun met again in one of their favourite rendezvous spots and they glided gracefully from one end of Northern America to the other! Another super thing that happened yesterday, is the publication of my newest book, Comfort and Earthquakes. I wrote this book because I recognise the extreme lack of true comfort in this world right now. I believe that the single MOST scarce commodity on this planet, is comfort! We have many kinds of fake comfort available in the world today: fake spiritual comfort, fake mental comfort, fake emotional comfort, fake religious comfort, so on and so forth. There is an extreme lack of true, genuine, raw comfort of the nature that HEALS the mind, heart, spirit, soul and physical body. I decided to provide this within a book. But then I also recognised the abundance of numb hearts in this world, hearts that must be moved, shaken and softened. And that is why I added "earthquakes."

Comfort is foreworded by 2018 Libertarian candidate for California's governor and last year's Transhumanist Party U.S. presidential candidate, Zoltan Istvan. The editing was done by Hannah and Cailin Loesch (the Loesch twins). Zoltan in California and H and C in New York: representing the unity from one end of the United States, to the other. Kind of like how the eclipse crossed from end to end!
You can grab your own copy from Amazon and any other online bookstore in a week, or if you can't wait to be comforted, you can get your own copy immediately from the printing warehouse's online store.
I hope that this book will be to you, all that you expect it to!

Today, my mind has been building upon the meaning of cherishing one's physical body as a treasure. What does this mean and what would life be like if we were all able to do this?

I believe that if we were all to look at our bodies and see our bodies as handcrafted works of art given to our souls as gifts during this journey we call Life, this would greatly change our outlooks that we have for ourselves and for others. We can see our bodies as what they really are: handcrafted, painstakingly designed, couture clothing for our souls. And they are magical, too! When it gets torn, it heals itself. When it gets dirty, it can wash itself. When it is ill, it can be revived.

If we were to look into the mirror at our bodies and see a custom-made gift designed with our specific needs in mind, I think this would lead us along the Path of the Meaning of Life. Feelings of rejection, unwantedness and boredom are really all rooted in a misunderstanding of our bodies. Also, the feelings of envy, covetousness and pride; these are also rooted in a misunderstanding of our bodies.

And imagine if we were to extend this vision beyond our own bodies and onto the bodies of others: their bodies are gifts given to them to cherish, their bodies are tailored for them with their specific needs and life's mission in mind. This shows us where our boundaries are and how useless our opinions are about another person's body or another person's life. Their body was designed for THEM, for THEIR journey, for THEIR destiny. And we all should respect this about one another. When have we ever judged the gift given to another? We don't judge gifts, because they are especially given to someone, for them and them alone.

Envy is a form of forgetfulness. You have your own destiny, your own journey. Before you were born into this world, you knew exactly what you wanted to look like, exactly where you wanted to be born (and how you wanted to be born), and exactly who you wanted to become, as well as which destiny you needed to fulfill. Then you were born and during this process of birth and infancy and childhood, you forgot what you already knew. You forgot that YOU chose to have the things that you have (that you were born with) and to not have the things that you don't have (which you were born without). You began to envy or despise other people's stations in life and your own station in life. And each time you envied or despised another, you became more and more forgetful of those precious things that you once knew before you were born into this world.

Hate is also a form of forgetfulness, a form of the misunderstanding of the nature and the roots of one's own body and where that body stands, in this world and in this life. Each person was handcrafted for the benefit of their own souls, for their own souls to love and to cherish. How can you still hurt another, while carrying this belief in mind? Do not harm the gift that belongs to another; it is for their own soul to say where they should go, what they should do, how they should look, and how they ought to fulfill their own destinies. It is not for you to say. It is for them to say. Do not hurt the body of another; they were given bodies that heal, that grow, that adapt. They are souls who were given gifts that have destinies to fulfill. Do not hinder that, do not hurt that.

A few days ago, I shared this short piece of writing along with an image of mine on instagram and it's from this stream of thought that I have continued to expand upon the thoughts I have shared here with you, today:

"Many years ago, I began to disagree with the religious preoccupation with physical death and separation of soul and body. I began to disagree with the notion that almost everything associated with the physical body is also closely related with sin. With the notion that we are innocent souls given damned bodies to live out our days on Earth just so we can die and go to Heaven (or some other Paradise). I questioned the nature of a God who would deliberately put innocence within damnation only to test the purity of the innocence.

I began to question why I must see the body that I live in as a "crucified" mass of flesh and bone, which I would one day be freed of and on that day I would be sinless. I do believe in right and wrong. But I do not believe that wrong is characterised by the flesh while right is characterised by the soul.

From our childhood years, we are taught that there is an absolute separation from black and white, from darkness and light: that evil is black and good is white. Black represents material body and white represents soul.

I became disenchanted with this system of thinking many years ago. I believe that the physical body is a gift given to the soul; one that the mind, soul and heart must treasure and cherish.
I have found this belief of mine encapsulated within an ancient symbol of black within white and white within black: ☯ And when I became disenchanted with death, I became enchanted with life and all of its wonderful and powerful possibilities."

I hope that you will be able to change and to develop the way that you think about your physical body, the way that you see it. And not only yours, but others', as well. Have a wonderful day!

What if there is no actual difference between a dead person and an unborn person? I have many dreams at night, over the period of many years (decades), in which I am breastfeeding babies. The dreams consist of me breastfeeding a baby, for the entirety of the dream. All kinds of babies: black, yellow, white, brown... and sometimes, nearing the end of the dream, the babies become attached to me and want to stay with me. I, too, nearly forget that the baby is not my own; nevertheless, as the dream nears its end, I am able to recall that I have only one son and that the baby on my breast belongs to someone else. At the end of such dreams, I give the infant to other people.

These dreams are all similar in nature, but with different babies. After many years, I have come to wonder about what is really happening in these dreams of mine. Am I comforting the souls of dead infants? Am I nourishing the souls of the unborn? Since I hand the babies over to others at the end of each dream, it would seem that I am nourishing the unborn before they are conceived in the womb (or perhaps, right before they are born into the world). Regardless, this has caused me to wonder if perchance the unborn soul and the dead soul are one in the same.

What if we are born many times and die many times? There is no such thing as a dead soul, anyway; there is only such a thing as a dead body. But what I am saying, is, what if the unborn soul is the same as what we would refer to as "a ghost". There is a great possibility that there is no such difference between souls. Dead and unborn are the same. The unborn have died before and those who have died before become again "the unborn". What if? What if they are one in the same?

Another thing I have been thinking about, is, materialism. When people in this world think of the word "materialism", they think of the desire for material things and this, to them, is an undesirable trait. They believe that the path leading to humility is the path that runs through the absence of material possessions (or the desire of it). I, though, believe that "materialism" in its undesirable form and connotation, is the equating of the human being to a material thing. When we begin to see people as objects (chess pieces, toys, options)— this, to me, is materialism. When we take what is immaterial and equate it to what is material. When we perform a degeneration of what is sacred and pull it down to the level of what is easily deteriorated.

Our bodies are material. There are those who would say that the food of the soul is more important than the food of the body. I wholeheartedly disagree. I have taught this repeatedly: that a body without a soul is a dead body and a soul without a body is a soul that cannot fulfill its destiny. The one needs the other to the same extent. Our souls need our bodies to be healthy and our bodies need our souls to live. And so why do we condemn our bodies to belonging "merely" to the realm of the material? Are we not thankful for this material life what we have been given? Why should we not desire, and be thankful for, material objects that can bring us comfort and satisfaction? There is no sin in this. Nay, it is a grave sin to teach that this is a sin!

I have become soulfood itself, for a multitude of people. And yet, I can confidently tell you that I am carnal as well as spiritual. I am 100% carnal and 100% spiritual. My soul cares deeply for my body and my body cares deeply for my soul. But I will never take what is sacred and turn it into what is corroded. A person is not a toy, a chess piece, or an option. A person is a person.

Alchemy is the practice of turning base material (such as lead or rock) into precious material (gold). Alchemy is the Soul performing at its fullest. The opposite of this is to take a precious material and to turn it into a base material: taking what is precious, like the human soul, and equating it to the value of an object. The opposite of Alchemy is the Soul performing at its lowest.

I have been thinking about yet another topic! The relationship between sex and innocence. There are goddesses of both sex and innocence (such as Egyptian Goddess, Hathor) and one would be inclined to ask how sex and innocence are related. But the relation between sex and innocence is tight like a strong chain! This question should not even be asked, anymore. The root of innocence in this world, is sex! Who are the innocents? The infants, the babies, the children. How do we bring the innocents into this world? We have sex. Without sex, there is no innocence brought into this world. And yet, we have come to treat sex as a degenerate's activity, as a lascivious desire that is predominantly sinful in nature. Nay, sex is sacred. Sex is sacred and the root of innocence.

As usual, there is always the devourer prowling in this world: the one who seeks to tarnish any shining thing. The rust of the nations, the RUST of the people. It is this rust that tarnishes sex, that tarnishes innocence and that would tarnish all good things, if it could.

But it is perfectly understandable why and how a goddess of sex may be the goddess of innocence and also the goddess of wisdom. Wisdom does not come from knowledge, I tell you! Wisdom comes from innocence! And so, all these three are three links in a very strong chain. A chain that would be tarnished by the devourer, by the rust of this world, every chance that it could do so!

And lastly, I have been thinking lately about envy amongst women. This is something I have been thinking about for decade upon decade. It is something to ponder upon, really. Why is it that women seem to harbour envy in their hearts far more than men do? I would go so far as to say that, generally, a woman is only genuinely kind to other women whom she deems to be less attractive and less successful than she is. Then she will say, "My beautiful, successful friend" but in reality she believes in her heart that she is more beautiful than the other. Then she will say she does not care about beauty. Well, if she does not care about beauty, then she should have no problem with being kind to women who are very beautiful; that is how the logic would normally go if it were in fact true.

A woman can devote herself to a man, for the sole reason that winning over the affections of that man would prove her more beautiful and more capable than his wife or his partner. And it never even has to be about the man, in the least! It was in fact solely based upon the desire to remove joy and comfort from the other woman and to dominate the other woman. That is truly how deeply rooted female envy is!

I have had countless encounters that have acquainted me with the envy of women. Honestly, I am naturally not envious of other women. I am in fact naturally an admirer of other women. I have had, though, a tremendous number of encounters with girls and women, in which they would shun me, try to remove me from existence, try to take away my happiness and comfort, etc. I know within my heart that there are plenty of women who would like to see me dead, for no other reason than they feel threatened by my existence. Even if we do not know each other. Even if I have never harmed them. Even if we have not even spoken to one another before!

Why is envy predominant amongst women and not amongst men? Is the beauty and the joy of a woman such an incredibly desirable thing upon this planet, that the placement of this would cause such an unfounded amount of animosity in the hearts of females everywhere? This is a question I have been asking myself for a long time now and it is a question that I think there may be no answer to. It is what it is, I guess, when it comes to this particular scenario.

I hope you have enjoyed my thoughts for today and I encourage you to share these thoughts with others! If you have any questions, feel free to ask me! And if you have any further mystical, spiritual insight into my dreams of breastfeeding many babies over the years, I would appreciate it if you could reach out to me and tell me what you know on the topic. Have a wonderful day, wonderfuls!

I have long been of the persuasion that there is a form of mental and emotional imbalance inflicted upon mankind, guided by the hand of collective opinion and popular thought patterns, which are distributed by spiritual leaders and thought influencers. And I am not the only one who is strongly of this persuasion. There are many very old manuscripts that have warned against this, to the exact effect that I am stating it now and have been stating it through my writings and in my books for years now. The collective minds of people are completely out of balance.

The problem arises when people try to convince other people that they are "enlightened" and that they have found "the path". Immediately, proselytizing takes place and masses conform. I am convinced (still convinced, as I have already been throughout the years), that this has been used as a tool for mass brainwashing.

When I was growing up as a child, I took pride in knowing self-defense combat techniques. I also took pride in carrying self-defense weapons. All my cousins were the same. My classmates too. It was cool to know combat and self-defense. It was cool to be equipped at all times. It was cool to know how to protect yourself. It was just cool. Nobody ever said, "But we need to respond to hatred with love." That phrase just did not apply to all areas, especially not in the area of knowing how to defend yourself. Back then, people had common sense and applied common sense as needed. Yes, there are times when responding to hate with love is the answer. It is certainly not the answer when it comes to knowing how to fight and knowing how to defend yourself.

Today, I look around me, and kids don't know combat, they don't carry self-defense weapons. And parents don't teach them. I used to carry pepper spray and an iron glove device. I never had to use them (thank God), but I knew if I ever had to use them, I would know how to. I look around at kids today, with parents raising them in sub-reality, parents telling them that they need to repay evil with kindness. Parents who would rather lose their children in coordinated, calculated acts of terror, than teach their children how to mentally profile a suspicious individual and how to fight back in case of an attack.

When we were children, we were well-rounded children. We were happy and we knew our table manners and our etiquette and we believed in fairy tales (I still believe in fairy tales); but at the same time, we were prepared for the reality of this world. But how come today as we live in a time where terror attacks are becoming the norm, it seems like the more and more children (and adults) are being taught that we need to do things like lighting candles and laying flowers? This is not called having a well-rounded mind! This is not being well-rounded! This is being incredibly, inconceivably stupid!

I truly believe that the cause of this is false teachings. Just as the ancient books written by The Rosicrucians predicted. The Rosicrucians, Knights Templars and The Illuminati all warned against false teachings that seek to divide the human being into only one part, and then to place importance only upon that one part. For example, the teachings that will tell you that the only thing that matters is your soul and not your body: that is imbalance. In reality, the soul and the body are of equal importance while you are here on this planet. Without the body, the soul does not walk the Earth and without the soul, the body is dead. Both are equally in need of the other! The goal is to master body AND soul, equally!

Today, I can see with my own eyes, how people everywhere are bombarded with teachings like the Law of Attraction, which state that the only way to make the world a better place and to make your life a better one to live, is by ignoring the existence of everything negative in the world and surrounding yourself in an unreal cocoon of "everything is always right". In reality, of course, this is not true. But what does this type of teaching do to the minds of humans, everywhere? This type of teaching turns everyone into PREY while the predators devour them! When you do not see the crocodile, because you are trained not to see the crocodile even when it is there in front of you, what happens is that you will be devoured by the crocodile.

The teachings of today are creating a weak generation. For example, the teaching of "all is love and all are one". The teaching of forgiveness, that we must always forgive everyone their wrongdoings. As a result, we have societies that are incapable, utterly incapable of overcoming terrorism! And the catastrophic part about this, is that, these societies are fully convinced that if they love terrorists hard enough, the terrorists will change their ways!

People want mercy only, so they discard justice. People want happiness only, so they discard the reality of the work that still needs to be done. People want compassion so they discard respect. People want love so they discard wisdom. People want freedom so they discard protection. People want righteousness so they discard guilt. A bird has two wings, the two wings bring balance and correction, but people today are so self-entitled, they believe that if they cut off one wing and take only the other wing, the bird will still be able to fly! This is wrong. This defies science and this defies reality. A bird must have two wings in order to fly. A bird must have balance.

The children of today are taught love, but they are not taught wisdom; they are taught compassion but they are not taught respect; they are taught righteousness but they have lost the ability to feel guilty for their own actions. Civilisation of today is raising children with only one wing, they have cut the other wing off!

When modern-day terrorism as we now know it, truly began to reveal its horrendous head not so long ago, the minds of children and adults everywhere were already ripe for the plunder. The minds of people were already saturated in a New Age culture of "one love" and "the universe loves me because I am made of stardust". In fact, right now innocent people go to concerts, children go to concerts, and don't come out alive. You may say that doesn't happen often, but I say that if it happened to your son or daughter, one time would be one time too often! And still, regardless of the reality that we all live in now, the majority of people deal with it via escapism. Escapism is a psychological condition whereby people retreat to alternative realities in their minds, in order to avoid dealing with the probabilities of actual realities that their physical bodies are presented with. Millions of people today are afflicted with this psychological condition. Millions.

I have been warning about this for years. I have written about this many times. I have even documented this in my books, explaining and expounding in some of the books which I have written. If all people retreat into their minds, then who is going to tend to the actual world around us?

Now, let me end by saying this: I am an actual Arch Magus. You probably don't even know what that means. I live and breathe MAGIC. If there's anyone who "should" be out-of-touch with reality, that should be ME! Why is this not the case though? Well, that is because MAGIC is the study of the laws of the natural world! Unnatural to those who do not understand, but only natural to those who understand it. The science of today was the magic of yesterday. Whatever they are too stupid to understand yet, they call "magic". We just call it "reality". So, I am a wielder of magic who is more in touch with reality than millions of people around me. I am concerned for the condition of mankind.

Stay away from people who call themselves "enlightened", for no enlightened person would label him or herself as such. Stay away from people who will tell you that the universe cares about you, because a person of knowledge will know that the universe is composed of dark energy, dark matter, and 4% matter, which are all things that are incapable of caring for you! Stay away from people who say that there is no wrong and there is no right that exists, for there IS wrong and there IS right that exists! There is evil and there is good. There are the right choices and there are the wrong ones. And lastly, stay away from people who would tell you to love at all times and have compassion at all times, for this is a religious and spiritual propaganda designed to enslave the minds of man. Of course, there are times when you should love and times when you should not love. There are times when you should forgive and times when you should not forgive. There is a time for the Sun to rise and a time for the Sun to set. There is a time for laughter and a time for tears. A time to reap and a time to sow. All has its own time. Wisdom is to indwell the perfect time as it unfolds in reality. And this is my message for you all, all you birds with only one wing!

Terrorism is just like a bacterial infection and having a terrorist problem is just like having a bacterial infection.

The treatment of terrorism, which we often observe these days, thanks to the frequent acts of terror being carried out all over the world, is also just like the treatment that one sick with a bacterial infection would receive.

As one ill with a bacterial infection would receive both anti biotics from the doctor and a bouquet of flowers from their friends and family, coupled with prayers and well wishes, so does a terrorist-stricken community receive from government and society.

We have those whose job it is to exterminate terrorists and terrorist ideology, while we have those whose sole ability is to offer prayers, flowers, candles and well wishes.

I will go on the absolute record and tell everyone right now, that love and flowers cannot cure a bacterial infection, nor can it cure terrorism. No matter how hard you believe it to be true, I am telling you, that what you believe is false. You are not going to love terrorists away.

When someone is sick, we do not tell the doctor to stop killing the bacteria through the administration of anti biotics. And yet, when a community or a nation is infested with terrorists who are equivalent to bacteria, we would like the cure to be flowers and candles. With only flowers and candles, an infected individual will surely die if the bacterial infection is already widespread (as is the terrorist threat right now). So, we tell the doctor to do his/her best (in the case of the infected individual). But why then, do we tell our governments (and ourselves and each other) that love is the only way to fight terrorism?

Love is absolutely not the way to overcome terrorists and terrorism. And I can tell you that I am very sure that they are very happy that you believe that right now!

There must be a balance. A balance of those who wish to light candles and lay flowers; and those whose job it is to shoot guns and detonate missiles.

There are many beautiful poems that have been written to the effect of loving all the bad away. But those are poems that merely sound good; nevertheless, they are empty vessels. Poems and sayings that are empty, useless, and even hazardous. We will never overcome terrorists and terrorist ideology through love and kindness. Never. This (terrorism) is a very lucrative and efficient system that must be eradicated and annihilated from the face of the Earth. Just as the doctor must eradicate every last molecule of typhoid fever or bacterial meningitis.

Please, work with reality and open your eyes. We are not all warriors and we are not all soldiers; however, we don't need to step in front of the paths of those who are. Let us all determine the role we ought to play and then work together towards the healing of our very infected global society.

I have some remarkable individuals whom I would like to introduce all of you to; as you know, over at my esoteric society, Eltanin Thuban Draconis, we have made it our goal to advocate the plight of those who fight battles that are often overlooked. We have made it our ambition to highlight people we believe are worthy of merit. People who are important not because they are influential business persons making a lot of money or celebrities on a global platform; rather, persons who are important because they themselves are made of gold!

The other week, I introduced Huib of On Lyme Foundation. His story of overcoming Lyme disease and his fight to help others do the same, is one that everybody on the planet should know about.

And this week, we have someone very special, a young woman who was brave enough to put her own grandfather behind bars for raping her as a child. But she doesn't stop there. She actively helps others like her, to stand up for themselves against all odds and to do the same!

It is with great pride that I bring these two individuals into the forefront and I hope that you will stand with me and my society in supporting them and sharing their stories as much as you can! Help me to help important people take the center stage. We need to take down the old image of who is important and for what reasons they are important and we need to build a new image for the kinds of people we call heroes and celebrities. To me, Huib and Sara are celebrities and I applaud them to no end!

“It is every woman’s right to always dress how she wants, that is my opinion on the matter.”

And then after saying that, he then said this:

“And it is not only Muslim women, all women can wear a headscarf, and if this real and rampant Islamophobia continues, there will come a day where we must ask all women to wear a headscarf – all – out of solidarity to those who do it for religious reasons.”

His logic being, that since all women should be able to wear what they want to wear, then ALL women should be mandated to wear the hijab, regardless of their own personal religions and beliefs, in order to protect the people of one religion and one belief.

Yes, this is the same woman who is responsible for demanding that European citizens assimilate to Islamic ways in order to make the refugees feel more at home.

Her logic here seems to be, that when one arrives in a foreign land, one must not assimilate to the laws of that foreign land; rather, the laws of that foreign land must bend to the foreigner who has arrived in it. As she expected to happen for her during her own visit to the middle east. Really, because, all women of the middle east are in fact protected by diplomatic immunity and won't be run down and flogged and beaten to death for not wearing their dress code, because they are all Chancellors of Germany with their own security SWAT team following them around. Therefore, Merkel's eschewing of their dress code will really inspire them to just throw their hijabs off and stop wearing their burqas, because, one look at her during her visit is enough to make them see just how oppressed they are and I guess being lynched is a better alternative.

This woman's mind is twisted.

Merkel very famously says that, "Islam is not the source of the problem", meanwhile, she goes to the Middle East and says that she wants to "inspire oppressed women" by means of not wearing the hijab and not respecting the strict dress code (there are other dress codes aside from the hijab wearing). She is saying that Muslim women are oppressed. And basically, that she wants to invade the Middle East and inspire Muslim women to become white, to move to the EU and to reject their religions.

Do these two people have a multiple personality disorder? Schizophrenia? What is it? Because I would rather not think that people are capable of becoming this stupid!

Both of these individuals are wrong. It is wrong to require all women to dress by the religious dress code of one religion! It is also wrong to visit a nation wherein they follow a dress code and then disrespect that code which is their own law! The President of Austria should not be causing his people to feel insecure and afraid, by saying that one day all women will be mandated to dress by the code of one religion; and the German Chancellor should not be going to countries dictated by the Sharia Law, refusing to respect their laws of their own land and even calling them "oppressed"!

What is the right way here? What is the right path here? There certainly is a right way, a right path. What is that? That is to see and to abide by the simple logic that when you go to a foreign land, you respect the laws and the customs of that land. And if you plan to stay in that land, then you must assimilate to make their laws your own laws and their ways your own ways.

Granted, we have freedom of religion and freedom of individuality and morality (most nations do, not all nations do). However, the freedom of religion means that ALL people have the freedom to follow a religion or to NOT follow a religion! That is the way that it goes! And when your religion interferes with the laws of the nation, then you must be put under check by the laws of that nation. This is very simple.

Merkel SHOULD HAVE WORN a hijab in a hijab-wearing country and Bellen SHOULD NOT be telling the Austrian people that they must all wear a hijab one day. Simple. Why do people have to twist things up in their minds and make everything so difficult for everyone?

What are these two individuals trying to do? Are they trying to facilitate the invasion of nations? Are they trying to switch things up? "Let's make Europe Islamic and then let's make Saudi Arabia into the new Europe"? Are they playing a little game out in the yard here? Are they mentally dysfunct?

Over at my newly founded esoteric society, Eltanin Thuban Draconis, we work out our own merit by bringing the merit of others to light. We cast nominations and we make unanimous decisions on who and what we consider to be persons and groups and events of merit. Our aim is to bring overlooked goodness in this world to the light of day, thus working out our own merit in the process. We are honoured that those who create light and serve the light in the places of darkness, are eager and happy to partner with us as we bring their actions and their visions to a global platform.

I would like to introduce you to our second Person of Merit, Quintus Andradi, a man who dedicates his time and hard work to the care and protection of his nation's ex-servicemen. Please read his story here and join us in uplifting him. His nation, Sri Lanka, is a small, developing country that is often overlooked. I am so glad that Eltanin Thuban Draconis is able to serve with this man and his fellow workers.

There are very simple but very impactful ways that you can join my society and I in the upholding of individuals and organisations of merit. Read their stories, follow them on social media, and if you want, you can even contact the people involved to have a chat with them and see if you could work for/with them! Even simply clicking "like" on their Facebook pages is a very helpful action to make. Or simply sharing the blog posts in which they are being endorsed/promoted. All of these actions make a big impact and we invite you to contribute to our meritable cause in simple and in creative ways. Thank you.

Today, I would like to proudly introduce you to an outstanding individual named Jacquelyn Lamont. My esoteric society and I— together, unanimously— we have come to an agreement that Jackie is not only an outstanding individual, but is also a Person of Merit, one that the world is blessed to have. It is with great anticipation that I give you her story, a story which I really hope everyone who discovers it will share, share, share, share everywhere! People like Jackie deserve and are worthy of recognition.

"Be not afraid, your darkness has a home." Here you can see these words taken from my book, The Conversation of Dragons, and tattooed into someone's flesh. Her name is Jessica James and she is the founder of ICARUS Inc.

These words are also what I say to suicidal people. Whenever someone is suicidal and they come to me, it is always the feeling of their darkness not belonging in this world, which makes them want to end their lives. We live in a society obsessed with positivity (or the appearance of positivity) and light. Anyone with a blemish, anyone with darkness, with a heaviness, is seen as a hindrance to the positivity that people want to attain. Thanks to teachings like the law of attraction, people are not taught how to get their hands dirty and transmutate darkness into light. Thanks to the teachings of today, we are living amongst a spiritually weak generation of people, who do not know how to face the darkness in the world and transform that darkness into light. The attitude today, of people, is that they believe that they are entitled to positivity and they are entitled to all of the light and the goodness, but they are too weak, afraid and unskilled to work with the darkness into order to create light. In our universe, the cosmology and the astronomy of sciences all point to the fact that light proceeds from darkness. In our universe, the greatest amount of space is taken up by dark matter and dark energy. Only 4% of our universe is taken up by light and objects of light that we are able to name and to recognise (planets, stars, nebulae, people). 73% of our universe is dark energy; 23% of our universe is dark matter.

In our current society, where people don't know what to do with negativity, they feel like they no longer deserve to live in this world the minute they experience depression, anxiety, other forms of heaviness in their lives. They want to kill themselves, they feel like they are not welcome.

But they are welcome. The only way to create light is to create it from darkness. Dark energy has the most potential to produce the most powerful forms of light. People need to know that they belong, that they are welcome, and that they are in fact WARRIORS.

In our day and age, people want to see everybody without sickness: this is a form of positivity. But they are not taught that in order to heal a sickness, you must touch the sick person. So, people want to live in a world free of sickness, but at the same time they do not want to heal the sick person. But for the world to be free of sickness, you must heal the sick person. See?

Today, people want to have flowers. Flowers nicely cut and placed in their homes. But they don't want to dig holes in the ground with their hands to plant seeds.

People want to have a clean world, but they will not bend over to pick up a piece of trash at their feet.

People want to worship the image of Jesus Christ on the walls of the church, but they forget that Jesus died a very violent death in order for them to be able to do that. Jesus walked with the sick, the lost, the bruised. Jesus did not for a single moment turn his face from the negative darkness in the world and in other people.

In reality, the current state of humanity's obsession with positivity, is the thing destroying people on the inside, and the planet on the outside.

Show me a person who will touch the sick, eat with the lost, and not fear the darkness in others, and I will show you a holy person.

I believe strongly in positivity and light. The difference with me and others though, is that I believe in producing light, not just basking in it. I believe in making diamonds out of rocks. It's positive, but it's not surface stuff. It's roots stuff. Rootwork.

To have a beautiful rose, make sure the soil is good. Others may want to have a garden full of roses and I want that too, but I know that a garden full of roses comes from a good soil and long roots. I am the maker of the garden, I am not just the one who wants to walk through it. And I believe that there should be more makers of gardens.

Darkness enshrouds the seed where the rose will emerge from. Remember that!

Do you consider yourself to be a positive person? A positive influence? Before you continue on with your day, stop and ponder upon these words. I do hope this will be helpful, have a wonderful day ahead!

When I first started out as an author, I naturally (like every other author) made my first attempts to network with other authors. In doing so, I found myself stuck with a bitter taste in my mouth and a negative energy all around me. You see, even when people do things in the name of positivity, often they are still forming a negative energy atmosphere around themselves that is churned out from the mechanical makings of competition, comparison, and "user-friendly" relationships. By "user-friendly", I mean: "Let's be friends because we can use each other to one another's advantage." So even if you gather together as a group of people for a positive motive, the energy that you produce around yourselves could very well be very negative for the other people in the vicinity. I became drained in that atmosphere of constant comparisons and constant competition between authors. That is when I decided that I would not even stop to look over my shoulder when I walked out that door. And I did walk out that door. And like I planned, I didn't even look over my shoulder.
I became a "grassroots author." I reconnected with those inner roots that are buried deeply into the soil stuff of WHY I was doing what I was doing, in the first place. Why was I writing? I was writing because I wanted to talk to people. End of story. And so that is exactly what I did. I wrote to people, I answered them when they wrote back to me, I listened to their stories, and I forgot about being an "author." The rest is history. The next time I checked, I was advising presidential candidates, movers and shakers, and people that I can't even name due to their involvement in national intelligence and defense services. The next time I looked, people were coming out of rehab after reading my books, people were having my words tattooed into their skin, people were thanking me for their life. Yes. For the reason why they are still breathing!
People are not going to trust you and come to you and open up to you because you have networked with enough big shots in the world to have earned a reputation. People are going to trust you and come to you and open up to you because they feel you, because you touch their hearts, because they know that's where their mind and soul is leading them— to you and to your work!
If you have a LinkedIn account and if you are an active user of this method of professional networking, you will probably be familiar with the whole user-friendly, look-at-me-I'm-so-great, look-at-me-I'm-competition scene. It's a place where people gather not just to do professional networking, but more often than not, it is a place where people gather to try and be something that they're not, or to prove what they are, to be validated by other people. To compete. They talk about positivity but while they build positivity projects together, they dispense an incredibly negative, competitive energy into the atmosphere around them.
The problem with focusing on your goals and forgetting about other people, is that you end up without other people. Simple. You end up (maybe) with your goal, but nobody actually loves you. Maybe the people who can get something from you will still be there in the end, but, do you ever stop to ask yourself if you are touching hearts? If you are healing lives? If you are hurting people? If you are forgetting people? People will run over others and forget about their word of honour, all in a bid to chase after their goals. Why? Because global society has placed such an immensely, immeasurably large amount of value on the goal itself (and on the process of reaching it), simultaneously forgetting about the human being, in the process. Both the human being going after the goal and the human beings surrounding that person going after the goal.
Seven years ago, I dropped the goal and I held hands with the people all around me. And I never left anyone behind. Before I knew it, I had attained goals that I didn't even know I wanted! I didn't even know such goals could exist! I didn't even dream of them! The goals dreamt of me, the goals attained me, the goals reached for me.
Sometimes, today, I can get caught up in the negative byproducts of positive projects and positive people (it happens more often than I would like to admit), and when that happens, I close my eyes and take a step back, I remind myself of the same things I reminded myself of when I first started out writing. I didn't look for anything, somehow everything looked for me. Why? Because I looked for people.
Going forward, I want to continue to be this way. I don't want to be "an inspirer", I don't want to be "a leader", I don't want to be "an influencer", I don't want to be "a thought leader" and I don't even want to be "a good person". Then what do I want? I want to be me, then I want to meet people, then I want people to tell me what/who I am to them. That is what I have done throughout my career and that is what I will continue to do. I have found out who I am, through what I have become to people. I will find people, and they will find me, and they will tell me who I am to them and I will discover who I truly am and who I am truly capable of becoming.
The next time you are told to "be who you want to be", answer that by saying, "I want to meet people, feel people, know people; and then I want them to tell me who I am to them". I believe we can change many things, simply by changing our workplaces through the renewal of our minds in this way. And yes, I am going to post this article to LinkedIn! Now, I hope this article has been helpful, do have a very wonderful day!

It’s time to meet Jim Crotty. Jim is a photographer, business man and former US Marine. In his review of The Conversation of Dragons, he has actually compared my book to a required reading for the US Marines. Read his review, you will be moved by it:

"The analogy that came to mind right away after reading C. JoyBell C.’s The Conversation of Dragons was the memory of being handed my copy of a Guidebook for Marines as a new recruit so many years ago on Parris Island. However, with C’s insight and wisdom are the general orders that are life-changing. Through the narrative of the 'conversation' the reader is imparted with a new way of being and just not thinking; an entry so to say to the higher realm of what I would attempt to identify as the cosmic alchemy of the soul. 'Love as fire loves' best summarizes the essence of what it means to be a dragon, and in and through that fire aren’t just simple words of encouragement but rather a full awareness of both the realities of life with the underlying foundation of both the mystical and spiritual energies that pull and push one’s soul out of the comfort zones of simple existence. It’s in these pages the reader will discover a transcendent wisdom that lifts one above the constraints of the everyday and obvious and into the wondrous ether of what is to truly live and love not as flesh but as a soul with a heart set free from the temporal bounds of the prisons we often build for ourselves, be it guilt, shame or fear.

All dragons carry and protect the sacred fire of each person’s potential to move beyond the stagnation of comparison (which I believe has become even more of an issue given the nature of instant social media) and the acceptance of socially convenient labels. C. JoyBell C. gently adjusts our common perception of light and darkness, of good and evil and of love and hurt to help us guard and grow the true treasures of our lives with the power and majesty of the dragon that resides in each of us."

More about Jim:

Jim is the Owner and Photographer at Picture Ohio, LLC. Aside from Jim’s involvement with the arts and entrepreneurship (he comes from a long line of entrepreneurs), he also gained a firm foundation in perseverance and determination while serving as a United States Marine. Jim’s evidence of loyalty to the United States Marine Corps Reserve includes the following: Honorable service including active duty training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, SC; graduate of USAF Security Police Academy at Lackland Air Force Base, Marine Corps Detachment; Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; Ft. Carson, Colorado Springs, CO and Camp Kinser, Okinawa, Japan. Corporal E-4 with Selective Marine Corps Reserve Award.

Jim has been a Marketing Communications Manager, a Journalism Teacher and a Speech Communications Teacher. His true love, though, goes to his two daughters, Emma and Chloe; and also to his son, Philip. His love is also evident in his affection for the arts. Jim says about his photography: “Life is art and a love for the art of living infuses every project I become involved with, from commercial photography assignments to teaching photography to capturing images that effectively express my appreciation for the beauty and wonder of nature. What I do as a profession and avocation resides deep within my being.”

Jim is courageous and sensitive. Be courageous and sensitive like Jim. 😊

The Conversation of Dragons is now available for purchase on Amazon and other online bookstores. If you would rather, you can always place an order at your local brick-and-mortar bookstore and they will ship in the book for you within a few weeks.

Of people that hold an opinion that is popular and that makes them look good: I cannot take your opinions seriously. If you are of a persuasion that is popular and that makes you look like a better person, then you hold that persuasion as a result of no inner convictions of your own; rather, you hold that persuasion as a result of self-consciousness. It takes courage and inner strength to hold convictions that go against popular opinion and that go against what would make you feel accepted in the eyes of most. There are three levels to this sort of consciousness: the first level dictates that you are simply unaware and you go about with daily life with no presumptions, simply going with the flow of everything. The second level is the one that the current generation mostly belongs to: the level of those who believe themselves to be enlightened, awakened. This second level belongs to those who would call those belonging to the first level as "sheep". This second level belongs to those who would believe that there are only two levels: one belonging to sheep and another belonging to them. They are unaware of the third level. But the third level of consciousness is the level that belongs not to what those on the lesser level would call as "sheep" and also not belonging to the second level of those who believe themselves to be free thinkers. At this third level, are those who see plainly that the free thinkers of today are simply a different herd of sheep, who all hold a shared opinion of what it means to be a better person, what it means to be an enlightened individual, what it means to be free. They are the herd that believe themselves to be free. At least the first herd at the first level do not care to go about with such thoughts in their minds: they are the ones who care only of working honestly, living honestly, and doing good deeds. Those on the second level, however, upon believing themselves to be set free of former persuasions, are convinced of their mental and spiritual superiority. But, alas, such individuals would not dare hold any personal conviction if it meant they would be seen in an unfavourable light by their peers, friends, by the masses. Their inner compasses are controlled not by the image they wish to see in the mirror; rather, their inner compasses are controlled by the image they wish others to see when looking at them. Now, at the third level, nothing controls these minds except for the desire to see in the mirror what is true, what is pure, what is better; regardless if anybody else can see it or not. At the third level of consciousness, we find those who have transcended the pleasures provided by the feelings of other people's acceptance, praise, and opinion of them. To be good, and to believe good, not because it is popular, but because it is true and good. At the third level, we will find those whose inner compasses are controlled by their reflections in the mirror, not by their peers, their friends, or the masses.

Much has been said about makeup and women who wear makeup. Much opinion has been formed about makeup and about women who wear makeup. Much has been expressed— by both men and women— on the subject of makeup and makeup wearing. Now, you are about to read something that I hope becomes the sacred word on makeup and makeup wearing and it would do your mind good to read this right now, whether you are male or female. Let's nail this down right now. For everyone.
The most common opinion that people have about a woman who wears makeup, is that she is trying to be beautiful. The second most common opinion is that she is trying to hide something. The third most common opinion is that she is trying to look different. And the fourth most common opinion is that she is trying to prove something to someone (or to everyone). Let us examine these opinions and present the facts parallel to them.
Some argue that the use of makeup can be dated back to 100,000 years ago, during the African Middle Stone Age. Archaeological evidence of this has been found. Irrefutable evidence of the use of makeup and other beauty cosmetics certainly dates back to the times of the ancient Egyptians (1st Dynasty of Egypt c.3100-2907 BC), Greeks (5000 BC), Jews (approximately 840 BC), Persians (early tenth century), Chinese (3000 BCE), so on and so forth. Archaeology proves that men and women have been using makeup since times immemorial.

Nefertiti bust with eyeliner applied
(1,320 BC- 3,300 BC)

During the European Middle Ages, the Church had condemned the use of makeup as immoral and sinful. Nevertheless, many people ignored that and continued to wear makeup. But as a result of the stigma manufactured by the Christian Church clergy in Europe, during the early 1900s the popularity in makeup began to fade and the use of it could be found predominantly amongst prostitutes (ladies of the night). Since it was designated as a sin, then it naturally remained as a trend amongst the sinful. I believe this mindset still taints the minds of men and women today, although to a much lesser extent. There is that idea in the back of the minds of some people, which associates the use of makeup with prostitution/ being an "easy woman".
Needless to say, today, men and women wear makeup as a norm; men to a much lesser extent than women when we examine the Western culture in particular (in many Asian cultures, straight men may own more makeup items than women). And it's now more than ever, that we need to really examine the popular notions and opinions that people do form in their minds, whenever they see a woman wearing makeup! Why? Because too many people are not thinking for themselves properly! And so, I will provide you with the tools that your mind needs to utilize in order to create informed opinions before speaking your mind and appearing to be a fool!
Surely, there are always a bunch of women who are going to use makeup because they indeed think that makeup will make them beautiful, because they indeed do want to change their appearance, hide themselves, and/or prove something to people. However, just like all things in our lives, there are always a bunch of people who are going to do something for their own reasons. Case in point: Many men buy new cars in order to get laid. Solid fact. But do all men buy new cars in order to get laid? No. Another case in point: Many people sign online petitions on Facebook, in order to appear to be good people. Solid fact. But do all those who sign online petitions, do so for the sake of the eyes of others? No. I hope these two solid fact examples are enough for you to catch my drift. I could go on and on with more examples, but, I trust that you don't need them.
I personally really have a passion for makeup. I think that they are beautiful items. I know the history of the House of Chanel, the House of Guerlain, Chantecaille; I know the inspirational and empowering story of how Bobbi Brown launched her own cosmetics empire from her love of mixing colours and textures; I know the life story of Estee Lauder and how she would pick flowers from her own garden to harvest into her cosmetics jars, so on and so forth. I know my cosmetics, beauty and fashion history! I am passionate about beauty and I think that beauty of the world and beauty of one's form and appearance, is an honourable pursuit. I believe that it is artistic and that it is respectful and polite of oneself and of others. Just as I would not go to a meeting with someone without brushing my teeth, I would in that very same light, not show up for a meeting with someone without applying perfume. I would not show up for a meeting without my favourite shade of lipstick on! Why? Because I respect the other person, the meeting that I have with him/her, and I respect myself! Moreover, just as you would not show up to a meeting with someone without wearing a shirt, I would not show up to a meeting with someone without covering my acne scars. Why? Is it because I want to impress you with my flawless skin? Maybe! But you ironed your shirt to appear conscientious and respectful of your body; if I do the same with my skin, why is this any less important than what you do with your shirt? Especially in Asian cultures, where the skin is regarded and ordained the most important organ of the woman's body (and it is in fact the largest organ of the human body, biologically speaking).

I am aware of the fact that makeup does little for the unsightly. It may improve their appearance a bit, but, if you are not good to look at, makeup will do little for you. I do not use makeup in order to change my appearance. I am also aware of the fact that women today do something called "contouring" which does dramatically alter the appearance, to the extent that someone can really turn out looking like someone else, entirely. But, I don't do contouring, not in the least. Why? Simply because I have very oily skin and all of that contouring would just melt off of my skin an hour later! Also, I just feel like I don't want it! So, even if I had dry skin, I probably still wouldn't contour my face with makeup. Does this mean that I think women who contour their faces are fake? They are probably not "fake". They are probably just enjoying the process of application. Believe me, plenty of women enjoy the process of applying makeup to their faces, just like how painters enjoy painting sunsets on their canvases.
My mother detests makeup. She doesn't enjoy the application process, she can't be bothered with applying a lipstick before heading out the door, and she can't even be bothered with carrying a powder in her bag. She's just that type of person! And that's okay! Her and I are the opposite in this aspect and that really is okay! But what's interesting about this, is the fact that my mother is truly a phenomenal artist. And I mean truly, truly phenomenal. And her specialty is the human face. Believe me when I say, that if she sketches or paints a human face, you will be able to identify who that face belongs to within seconds. She is really that accurate. And yet, she cannot and will not be bothered with makeup! And that's just her!
Perhaps there are many women who are fake, who like to contour their faces and use too much makeup. But that is to the same degree as the many women who are fake, who try to prove that they are better women by not wearing any makeup! Yes, those types do exist in abundance: "I am a better kind of woman, because I don't need makeup to prove anything to anyone, this means that I am more secure than that woman over there and I am more secure than this woman over here. I am better, I have a better heart." And so, such types of women are just as fake and just as pretentious as the women who bake and cake in order to prove a point. These are just two different types of pretentiousness! Different types, but equivalent in outcome.
In all human interactions and actions, there are the fake and there are the pretentious. There are the simple and there are the pure. This applies to everything. Fakeness can be found in all human actions and interactions: from church attendance to the brand names on handbags. From mindsets and political affiliations, to the posts that are made on social media. It is up to us to determine which types of fakeness actually affect our lives profoundly. I don't know about you, but I am of the persuasion that a woman's baked and caked face probably will not affect my life as profoundly as a woman's carefully outlined presentation of personal goodness.

Aside from the respect and politeness for other people and for myself, which I express through the use of makeup, I enjoy makeup for its beauty in craftsmanship. Not all women appreciate delicate and ornately crafted items. Albeit, many women would rather have a toolbox. That's okay! My mother has a toolbox and she can assemble an electrical generator with her own two hands! But there are also women who like to climb trees and would rather do so with a lipstick and a compact powder in their back pockets. Some women like to do all things with a glorious face and that's okay! It's not that our makeup-free faces are not glorious, but, why should we forego feminine choices in our day-to-day lives? Because for many of us, makeup application is not only enjoyable, but, it is in fact an expression of femininity. If that's how we like to express our femininity, then that's up to us. And that's okay.
In this day and age of feminism, other women are dictating to their fellow women, more than ever before, what it is supposed to mean to be feminine. To be feminine means to get a degree and become an engineer and to not have kids and not get married. Well okay, if that's what some people think, then they are free to think that. But that is not what femininity means for everybody. For some people, femininity is the celebration of the attributes that differentiate us from men. And for me, that is indeed what femininity stands for. This does not mean that I do not have a brain. Modesty aside, I consider myself to have a better thought process than many people with doctorate degrees. In fact, there are plenty of people with doctorate degrees who need my guidance in their lives! And so as you can see, being feminine in a way that celebrates what differentiates myself from the masculine in this world, does not mean that I am not brilliant, that I am not intelligent, that I cannot be effectively smart.
If women need to hide things on their faces with makeup, why is this a crime? If you had a scar on your face and you sought treatment or coverage for it, should I consider this as a telltale sign that you are a fake and deceitful person? I have acne scars on my face that stem from my adolescent years. Thankfully, they are easily covered with concealer/foundation. Is this a deceitful crime? I think not. Some people shave their beards, some people wear contact lenses, does this therefore mean that they are being fake towards me by not showing me their true unshaven faces and/or that they are deceiving me by making me think that they have perfect eyesight? I hardly think so!

Why is there an obsession with women and makeup? Why is there no obsession over how people like to quote Buddha in order to make others think they are enlightened? Why is there no obsession over how people like to associate themselves with the Dalai Lama in order to publicly and visually align themselves with what is peaceful and good? Why is there no obsession over how many times a man shaves in a day? Really, when you examine all that I have presented to you here today, you will be able to plainly and simply see that there is a laughable imbalance here. And I think that this most likely stems back to the early 1900s when the Church designated makeup and the use of makeup to harlotry, sinfulness and immorality. There is that quiet, mute little notion in the back of people's minds, that just festers there.
Do people realise how much makeup it actually takes to make a woman look like she is not wearing any makeup at all? It takes longer, and it takes a lot more product, to make a woman look like "the no makeup look." Usually, a woman with a bright red lipstick is probably wearing only a bright red lipstick, some foundation, concealer and a bit of eyebrow pencil. It's the women who are wearing nude lipsticks that are caked in highlighter, contouring pencils, so on the so forth. And so, you are ultimately deceived by the things that you judge to be better. And why is this so? Well, that is because it would all benefit us to judge no one but ourselves, in the first place. And to judge ourselves not for the sake of the eyes of others, but to judge ourselves for the sake of our own eyes when we look into the mirror.
We all have different preferences in makeup. Mine is a preference for what is simple and elegant (elegance is simplicity, afterall). But others have a preference for the dramatic and the intense (which is none of my business, afterall). While I enjoy collecting beautifully crafted makeup items and while I am ever so appreciative of some of the exotic, rare and very beneficial, healthy ingredients that go into some of the luxury makeup products; I also enjoy using a light hand with makeup, just as much as I enjoy a light heart in life! Simplicity and lightheartedness is elegance.
Finally, as you can plainly see, the makeup that I use, and how much I appreciate it, is only an extension of my own attitudes towards beauty of life and of living. This is me. This is not the same for everybody else, but, this is me. And I cannot be told to run out of the door without a bit of lipgloss on, because, with that little bit of lipgloss on, I will smile bigger, I will laugh louder, and I will appreciate the sunsets more wholeheartedly, This is what my lipgloss does for me. And more often than not, lipgloss is really the only makeup item that I have on. I do enjoy my naked face and I often share photos of myself everywhere sans makeup. And I'd just like to end this article, by saying, that it is a most important discussion to engage in and to pass on, because while it may seem trivial in nature, it really is not. There is a lot of understanding that is to be gleaned from this conversation, a lot of understanding which I hope will help to form your thought patterns and your own outlooks not just towards makeup and women who use makeup, but your own outlook on other people, yourself, and the way you live your life. Have a wonderful day!

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"I am a flawed person. A brook with many stones, a clear blue sky with many blackbirds. I have many shortcomings. A rainbow that’s not long enough, a starry night with clouds. But I can only be thankful to the God who loves me just this way, and I can only be grateful to the people in my life who accept the clear blue sky with many blackbirds and who are patient with the rainbow that isn’t long enough. And because of this, I am taught love, because of this I love my God, and I love these people."— C. JoyBell C.

DISCLAIMER

This blog is not an online diary. Anything reflected through my writings here, do not necessarily mirror my present emotional, mental, or physical state, unless directly stated. Furthermore, any resemblances to you or to anyone you know, is purely coincidental and is not a result of me creating any "blind items" about you or your loved ones and friends. Moreover, your reading of my writings does not constitute a marriage, personal relationship, or personal friendship, between us.